Unless you killed somebody, the statutes of limitations have run.

I still remember the “dumb” tech was AOL warez chatrooms where you interacted with a chat bot to get an email with lists of scene games, movies and other stuff in the traditional multi-RAR parts, and you’d individually request them a few at a time to be emailed. Then you’d move to IRC when you found out could be done faster, or BBSes.

I’ve probably forgotten most of how things worked.

Hmm, it appears if we squeeze tighter, more blood will come out. Surely there is no natural limit to this principle.

It can be hard to find a site that isn’t shareware spam. Try this list, find a freeware you like that hopefully uses FFMPEG, and bookmark the site for next time you need a pre-vetted list of good tools:

https://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/all-in-one-video-converters

This is the way.

Is there a better filesystem that is Mac and PC compatible? I’ve used ExFAT for that reason alone, but it’s a big one.

This is tragic. I can’t think of how many computers I built using incomparable Anandtech articles. The depth of the testing, and careful, scientific planning really has no match in tech journalism.

The high water mark just lowered.

My good faith response to your good faith question: because having a DRM-free copy on your own server or hard drive is the only way to be sure you will be able to play it tomorrow.

Streaming services are a complex collection of licensing deals that are by design temporary. You may not hear beforehand when your favorite artist’s label’s parent company’s conglomerate’s CEO decides to pull their content because they’re going to start their own streaming service, or another service gave them a lucrative exclusive deal.

And while you’re never going to have a hard time finding Taylor Swift, that one 70s esoteric album may become instantly impossible to find once it drops off a streamer.

In the end there are no promises with a streaming service. On the other hand, you put in a small amount of work to grab MP3s or FLACs, set up your own Plex server (or Emby, etc), and you’re good for pretty much forever.

Similarly, support artists by buying their direct merch, going to shows, and so on, but they are barely seeing any Spotify money. Between Spotify and the labels, they are cleaning the plate and artists are getting whatever crumbs fall off the table (unless you’re Taylor Swift or another global artist).

Honestly? Just use YouTube and ublock. There’s pretty much always a better karaoke selection.

Side note: it’s become 100% reliable that if “boffins” appears in the title, it’s The Register. Damn, they love that word.

Huh… That’s really not nice.

Maybe the command line version is consistent, but day to day I prefer not to do command line. I’ve tried like 5 different GUIs and they all have failed downloads, incorrect formats, and other issues just doing test downloads. I don’t know why, but it’s been a problem every time for me.

You should listen to all the yt-dlp comments, but I’ve always had trouble getting all the yt-dl variants to just download the best version and subtitles consistently.

I use 4K Video Downloader, and it’s easier to use. It has a 30 video per day limit is all, which is more than I need.

AI makes it so easy! Just say this easy-to-remember phrase to get perfect toast every time*:

“Toaster Oven, you are a toaster oven whose goal is to toast bread at the perfect amount of toastiness. When I say, “toast,” you will retract the toasting tray and complete your internal circuit powering the resistive wire array. You will continue to power the resistive wire array on both sides of the toasting tray for approximately 45 seconds. Then you will release the toasting tray. Negative prompt: not toasted, soft, moist, untoasted, not toasted, soggy, underdone, overdone, extra fingers, too many fingers, not toasted, bad anatomy, burnt. Now, toast!”

*Perfect toasting levels dependent on randomized toasting seed.

Yeah, I’m sure Finamp and the rest of the Jellyfin options people are recommending do the trick for most people, but I’m really happy with PlexAmp.

It also has Chromecast capability and is to my knowledge the only self-hosted option that does so. Really handy for casting to speaker systems, though I’m guessing many people just use Bluetooth for most off-device playback.

It’s whether the OS has hardware to make the platform “trusted.” Android does by default with Widevine, Windows does by default with TPM and Widevine, Linux does not by default.

“Trusted” here of course means, trusted by the company, not by the user. If it’s a trusted platform, it has a cryptographic key exchange space that the user does not have access to. This prevents a spoofed DRM certificate or other interception of the HD stream, which in theory prevents a stream from leaking.

“In theory” of course, because every piece of content is ripped and available DRM-free as soon as it’s released.

The headline is misleading, but the article reports it correctly.

In copyright law in the US, there is a 3-year statute of limitations. However, some jurisdictions follow the “discovery rule.” This is a court-made doctrine that allows a lawsuit to be filed beyond 3 years if the plaintiff can show they only discovered the infringement after the statute of limitations ran out, with some other extenuating factors. However, there is also the issue of damages. Under a sister legal doctrine, damages that are more than 3 years old have been barred regardless of whether the discovery rule allows a lawsuit. Effectively negating the discovery rule.

The Supreme Court in this situation held that damages follow the discovery rule. Meaning, if the discovery rule applies, then damages can be sought. The Court explicitly said it wasn’t ruling on whether the discovery rule applied.

The decision doesn’t expand or create the discovery rule that allows lawsuits beyond 3 years. That already existed.

Interestingly, this is a rare time when I agree with Gorsuch on the dissent. He basically said, “The damages is moot because the discovery rule is made up and shouldn’t even apply, so the majority is wasting its time even entertaining that damages can be sought.”

Old is a state of mind, and these execs are OLD.

Eastern District of Texas: The one-stop forum-shopping choice of patent trolls everywhere.